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Photo Corner: Jeanne M. Salzer and Fred Appleton

Contributed by Rita Barbeaux, Manistique, Michigan Already a grandmother several times over, Jeanne Mercedes Salzer served stateside from 1943-45 with one of her duties being to photograph the civilians and process their passports for them to go overseas to entertain the troops – including one Lester T. Hope better known as Bob Hope!

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Cliick on the photographs to enlarge them.

Contributed by Peter Appleton His grandfather, Fred Appleton, taken in 1913 just after he had joined the Territorial Army at age 21 as a Bandsman in the 4th Yorkshire Regiment (better known as The Green Howards).

The second photograph (right) ofÂ now Lance Corporal Fred AppletonÂ was taken just four years later after he had served on the Western Front for two years showing a dramatic change in appearance.Â It clearly shows the strain that active service put on the young soldiers during the 1914-1918 war. And granddad was a Bandsman. He would have been spared the front line fighting because the band was a valuable morale booster. However, he would have been a stretcher bearer, bringing the wounded and dead back from No Man’s Land. He probably saw horrors the like of which we cannot even imagine.

10 thoughts on “Photo Corner: Jeanne M. Salzer and Fred Appleton”

I lost my dad in the World War II, he never got a chance to see me before he died, but it wasn’t until I started to work on the reasearch of my father-in -law’s unit that the enormous loss of life really affected me. There are memorials in almost every city besides the National Memorials in our Capitols to the men and women that died in just that one war. When I am doing my searches for names and dates and pour through the columns and columns of the names of our young men that lost their lives it seems staggering. There has got to be a better solution to the problems of this world than WAR! I have yet to ever see a bumper sticker promoting war, everybody wants peace, well then, why don’t we have peace? Who but a few faceless, nameless corporations profit from war? Who are they? Why don’t we know who they are? This is probably not the right forum for my diatribe but I don’t know what is, but it seems to me that is all the people on the earth that want peace pulled together it might get accomplished. And then maybe another mother wouldn’t have to mourn her son.

I felt compelled to comment on this “diatribe”. There are untold numbers who feel the same,Roger. I found that even in foreign countries there are memorials to U.S. war dead that are kept up by a commision in the government.When I was researching a World War II vet, I read that his unit had fought continuously,every day ! for almost a year ! Those people deserve our utmost respect.

Bob Hope’s name was actually Leslie Townes Hope. He loved to tell this story on himself: He was born in England and came to the US as a schoolboy. In England the format for identifying one’s self was last name, then first name. So when he said his name to the class in the US, as he was used to, it came out “Hope, Leslie”, and the class roared with laughter at “hopelessly”.

I had my own diatribe, but this probably isn’t the place. Suffice it to say that war is a terrible waste and it isn’t the best (or even a good) way to settle disputes. Yet, history shows (especially WWII) that some really do want war, and then it is the only answer. Hitler wanted it so bad that he rushed his country into it before it was ready. Had he not been so eager and waited, he might well have prevailed. He certainly was enabled by those who refused to believe his stated intentions, such as Charles Lindburgh, Henry Ford, Joseph Kennedy, and Neville (“peace for our time”) Chamberlain. They deluded themselves thinking that Hitler was really peace-loving and reasonable. Thank goodness for those who stopped wishing for peace and acted to secure it. We remember them always, but especially on Memorial Day.

I hope that all of you with Women who have served in the Armed Forces of the United States will check with the Women in the Military Service Associations monument at the gates of Arlington to insure your family women are accounted for there. If you find women who have served our country in the Armed Forces, please insure they are included and honored in that wonderful memorial. Women are and have been veterans too. Joyce Fletcher Menard MAJ Medical Service Corps U.S. Army (Retired)

June 10/06; To whom it may concern; My name is Kimberly C. I am searching for information on who was Charles Lindbergh’s Mother. My father studied Art and Painting directly from Charles Lindbergh’s Mother. I am doing research on this history,because I am writing an articles for the local news papers here in Arizona. I am researching,because i followed in my fathers artistic footsteps of an Art Embroidariest. If you hve any information on this and who she was ,encluding her name. Please submit this info.to others who may be interested in contating me. My emails are KIMBERLYCORNEA7@msn.comkoz@cashmaters.comkac20654@yahoo.comkimwon8@iwon.com My eFax Number is;1-732-601-1907. Thank you so very much for your help. Signed Kimberly.

Looking at these two pictures brings back memories of my father, Frank L McKinney who served in WW I. I remember when I was a child he did not want to talk about the war and his time in France. He hated the song, “Over There” and the radio was turned off as soon as he heard it. During the depression, shortly after the war, we children would say we were hungry and we got a rundown of the food given to the soldiers in WW I, I remember hearing about “hardtack” that he had to eat. My dad had a thriving business in Delaware before being drafted and when he came home, it was all gone. Then the depression followed soon after and he could not feed his family. Those men fought for a bonus but it was long coming and not too much when they finally got it. In his later years he did tell some stories about the war and we could see why he did not want to speak of it.